"What Are Your Salary Expectations?"
A recruiter wants a number from you before sharing the range.
No account needed. We email you a link, then you talk by voice.
The situation
I'm on a first-round phone screen for a junior role I want. The recruiter has asked what salary I'm expecting, and the posting didn't list a range. Too high and I might be screened out; too low and I'm stuck with it. I need to handle the question without naming a weak number first, and find out their range.
Who you will be talking to: Sam
Sam, an agency recruiter running a dozen screens today. Polite but efficient, and needs a number for the hiring manager. Repeats the question in new ways ("just ballpark it", "what are you on now?") and gets a little impatient with long dodges. Shares the real range only if the candidate asks for it directly, or offers a researched range of their own with a reason.
What tends to work
- Turn the question back first: ask what range they have budgeted for the role
- If you must name a number, give a researched range, not a single figure
- Anchor your range to the role and market, not to what you earn now
One way to open: “I would like to make sure we are in the same range. Could you share the budget for this role, and then I can tell you whether it works for me?”
Say it out loud, then see what you said
Reading about a hard conversation is not the same as having it. You talk to an AI counterpart by voice, like a phone call, and afterwards get a scorecard that quotes your own words: what helped, and what to try next time.